Stained Glass Exhibition of La Sagrada Familia (Barcelona)

Until 30 September, the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) shows a temporary exhibition dedicated to the windows of the Temple, designed by the famous artist Joan Vila-Grau.

In 1999 the painter Joan Vila-Grau received a commission to design and make the stained glass for the great window on the Western facade.

After several months engaged in studying the church of La Sagrada Família and especially the concept and function of the stained glass in the different works by this great architect, Vila-Grau undertook the project and the making of the Resurrection window, which was installed in mid 2001.
The Construction Board of La Sagrada Família then commissioned him to design and make all the stained glass for the church, a task on which he has been working since.

Vila-Grau’s purpose is to develop an authentic, total and suggestive symphony of colour and light to create, in his personal style, the atmosphere that pervades the whole church and make the wish expressed in Gaudí’s words come true: «The church of La Sagrada Família will be luminous…, it will be the church of harmonious light.»

The exhibition includes also the entry to visit the Temple.
More information on the website: www.sagradafamilia.cat

Ryanair lands to El Prat Airport (Barcelona)

From yesterday the Irish airline Ryanair will be launching flights from El Prat airport, where it will be operating a total of 20 routes, establishing a base with five planes and employing 350 people, with an investment of 350 million dollars, about 284 million euros.

Ryanair will be connecting El Prat to airports at Brussels (Charleroi), Cagliari, Dublin, Düsseldorf (Weeze), Edinburgh, Oslo (Rygge), Paris (Beauvais), Rome (Ciampino), Venice (Treviso) and Milan (Bergamo).

The Spanish airports Ryanair will be linking to Barcelona are Palma, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Malaga, Santander, Santiago, Seville, Tenerife and Valencia.

Ryanair expects to carry some two million passengers to El Prat by the end of the first year, creating some 2.000 jobs. Barcelona airport, where it will use the T-2 terminal, will be its 42nd base in the world and the sixth in Spain.

To celebrate the announcement of its El Prat base, Ryanair offered over a million tickets for sale at 5 euros to travel on over 500 European routes.

Barcelona Day in Expo Shangai

A little over a month before the Universal Expo in Shanghai closes its doors, the Mayor of Barcelona, Jordi Hereu, has travelled to the Chinese city to promote Barcelona within the framework of this international event.

The aim of this official visit is to provide a boost to economic initiatives which seek to do business in China and to strengthen ties with the city of Shanghai.

On his first day in the Chinese city, the Mayor made an initial visit to the Universal Expo complex and attended a show by Fura dels Baus. This Monday, accompanied by Spanish PM José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, the Mayor will visit the Barcelona pavilion.

This Thursday is Barcelona Day, which will include a symbolic act, awarding the Mayor of Shanghai, Han Zheng, a replica of Gaudi’s lizard. There will also be a show which includes the participation of the first group of Castellers in China, the Xiquets de Hangzhou.

To round off this official trip, the Mayor will visit Singapore where he will deliver an honorary citizen of Barcelona medal to Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s prime minister until 1990.

New Music Season in Barcelona

The city’s new music season gets under way in September with a varied and attractive programme.

You could start by sampling the programme at the Palau de la Música, which has a “Mozart in jazz” concert on 1 September, with Llibert Fortuny on sax and Manel Camp on piano. Also awaiting you will be the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès (18 September) and the guitarists Xavier Coll (8 and 17 September) and Pedro Javier González (24 September).

If you visit the Liceu between 4 and 7 September, you can enjoy an opera in four acts, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, with music by Christoph Willibald Gluck and a libretto by François Guillard. It opened in Paris in 1779. This is the second version of Iphigenie auf Tauris, which marked the end of the composer’s Paris period and is one of his truly brilliant operas.

On 27 and 30 September you will find Marc Piollet and Calixto Bieito directing the comic opera Carmen, with music by Georges Bizet, a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and based on the novel by Proper Mérimée. It opened in Paris in 1875 and in Barcelona in 1881, coming to the Liceu in 1888.

As regards symphonies, the OBC will be at the Auditori (24-26 September), conducted by Pablo González and playing compositions by Ramon Humet, Debussy and Shostakhovich.

Shared Services. Cutting costs, Innovative Strategies.

Axiom Groupe, together with Ajuntament de Barcelona and Hotel 1898 presents its 3rd annual event in Barcelona.

‘Understanding key issues of SSC in a changing economy’
‘Innovative back office strategies to lower total business operating cost’
‘Constantly re-adjusting BPO to perform ROI and cash flow’

A two-days conference held at Hotel 1898 where you will learn and share experience with Schindler, Lafarge, BNP Paribas, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, UPS or Nordea Bank, among many other real Case Studies and Round Tables.

Ajuntament de Barcelona will be offering the End of Conferece Exclusive Cocktail, with Jordi William Carnes, Deputy Mayor for the Treasury and Economic Promotion of the city.

Detailed information can be found at Axiom Groupe website.

New works at Antoni Tàpies Foundation (Barcelona)

The work Fusta pintada i rascada (Painted and scratched wood), from 1960, belongs to the Antoni Tàpies collection; it is a signature piece and starting point of the new selection that features works from the Antoni Tàpies collection. This exhibition will be open to the public for the first time, in the Foundation building.

It aims to show the importance of materials used in the works of Tàpies. This interest could be noted in his first works from the mid to late 1940’s. Rope, rice, newspaper and toilet paper came to play an important part in his visual discourse.

In fact, Tàpies used this to demonstrate his support of introspective, reflexive and austere art that reflected a critical attitude towards mass culture and the emerging world of advertising.

The selection, open to the public this summer, follows a chronological tour from the 1940s to the present day, with works like Capsa de cordills (Box of Strings), Collage del paper moneda (Collage of paper coin) and Ratlles i empremtes (Lines and imprints), among others.

Antoni Tàpies. Collection | From 13/08/2010 to 26/09/2010
Aragó Street, 255 - Eixample

Discover Barcelona during the 60’s

Barcelona’s Photographic Archives, in collaboration with the Municipal Archives System Deparment, is presenting a selection of pictures in the exhibition Eugeni Forcano: My Barcelona. The exhibition features over 130 black-and-white, large format photographs and is being held at two separate venues, the Sala Ciutat and the Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona.

Eugeni Forcano, a self-taught artist, fascinated by the power of the image and how to capture it. He started very young, producing photoreports about local life in his hometown Canet de Mar, where he set up his first photographic laboratory. During the 60’s, Forcano worked for the weekly magazine Destino, and is one of the most awarded photographers of Spain.

Where: Sala Ciutat - Ajuntament de Barcelona. Ciutat, 2. <M> Jaume I
Where: Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona. Pons i Clerch, 2. <M> Arc de Triomf
When: Until January 2011.
More inf@: Free entrance. Detailed opening times can be found here.

Delightful stay at Hotel Granvia

We had a delightful stay at the Granvia Hotel !
Warm and nice welcome, very pleasant, spaceful, very clean room … great location, close to a lot of interesting spots (shops, subway, Ramblas …)
We sure will come back when visiting Barcelona again !

Experience posted by Sophie, August 2010.

Everything ready at Gracia

Gràcia’s 2010 Festa Major or annual local festival (14 to 22 August) will be filling the district with concerts, workshops, exhibitions, sporting events and competitions, street parades, fire, giants, food, human towers and much more. There’ll be something for everyone. Prizes will be handed out for the best decorated streets on Tuesday 17 August.

Activities such as free beer tasting, children’s jigsaw-puzzle competition, exhibitions, story telling, gastronomy, courses and workshops for everyone, karaoke and street concerts to suit all tastes in the old town, from Habaneras to pop rock and disco music, as well as Celtic music, jazz, blues and rap, among other things.

Catalan tradition will be present as well, with bonfires, correfocs, traditional dances and parades, passacaglias, giants and human towers.

Barcelona in Shanghai: 1.5 million visitors

1.5 million people have already visited Barcelona’s Pavillion at Expo 2010 Shanghai.

Visitors can send messages of late friendship, through an e-book, to Joan Antoni Samaranch, the Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee and a key figure in securing both Barcelona’s and Beijing’s bids to host the Olympic Games. Among those who have already written a message we can find FC Barcelona players. Regarded as the person who held the most sway over the Olympic movement during the 20th century, Joan Antoni Samaranch was instrumental in securing Barcelona’s bid to host the 1992 Olympic Games, an event that would mark the city’s history for ever.

The Barcelona Pavillion is located in the area dedicated best urban practices from around the world. Next to it is a small square where an exact replica of Gaudí’s Dragon is on display.

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